On this day in 1887, Tilly Walker was born. Unless youâre a devoted baseball historian, Walker is pretty much an unknown as baseball players go.
Coming to the bigs in 1911, he was a journeyman outfielder playing for the Senators, Browns and Red Sox before finding a more permanent home with the Philadelphia Athletics where he played for six years between the years of 1918-1923. He was a solid hitter for his era, ranking up there among the leaders in extra-base hits, slugging and yes, even homeruns.
His homerun numbers during his career werenât Ruthian by any means. He ranked 3rd in the American League in 1914 with a grand total of six. As time went by, his total grew getting up into the double-digits even reaching as high as 37 in 1922.
But Tilly Walker has one major distinction, perhaps fodder for a trivia question. In 1918 while playing for the Philadelphia Athletics, he tied Babe Ruth for the AL lead in homeruns with 11. He was the last person to lead the league in that category before the Babe Ruth era. Ruth then continued his dominance of baseball by leading the AL in homers 10 of the next 12 seasons (the exceptions? In 1922 when Ken Williams had his career year for the Browns and 1925 when Ruth had his famous âBellyache Heard âRound the Worldâ aka gonorrhea).
If you look over Walkerâs stats, youâll note that those 11 homeruns he hit in 1918 is only time he ever led his league in any category.
Walker ended his career with 118 career homeruns which probably doesnât seem like a lot. But considering that the career leader at the time of his retirement had 238 and that was Babe Ruth, he probably ranked pretty high.
Tilly Walker has obviously passed on (in 1959) in his home state of Tennessee. But he does have a place in baseball history. Happy Birthday, Tilly Walker!
WHITE SOX WIN 4-2 in METRODOME FINALE, coming back from two runs down, nobody on, two outs, two strikes, against Joe Nathan, Gordon Beckham HOMERS, Paul Konerko HOMERS, pinch runner Dewayne Wise (running for Jermaine Dye, who’d walked), SCORES after stealing second, on a shallow single to left by Alexei Ramirez, another run scores on a wild pitch, and Bobby Jenks gets them 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th to close out the Metrodome.
Guillermo Mota is on the DL due to an ingrown toenail. While Aaron Boone, expected to be out for the season, heart surgery, is back playing ball. Then there’s Adrian Beltre, on the shelf with a severely contused right testicle. Suffering from depression is Scott Schoenweis, his wife was found dead in their apartment.
Trader Kenny Williams turned from a buyer to a seller when he dumped Jim Thome off to the Dodgers and Jose Contreras off to the Rockies. These moves came when the team hit the skids, putting them out of the playoff picture. It doesn’t seem all that long ago, we were breathing down the neck of the first place Tigers in the AL Central. We picked up ace starting pitcher Jake Peavy, who just needed short rehab time in the minors before he’d be up, helping to lead the charge. Then Williams went out and snatched talented outfielder Alex Rios from the Blue Jays, we were going for it, for sure! But this recent roadtrip sealed our fate, losing six of seven to the Red Sox & Yankees, putting an end to any chance at postseason play. It also spelled the end of the Jim Thome & Jose Contreras era on the Southside. I’m sure there are many players on the current roster wondering if they might be next.